When Jake Rohrig was a kid, he and his mom, Joyce, would go outside at night, slip into their sleeping bags and count meteorites as they fell, she told me.

His folks also would buy him Lego sets to build Star Wars figures.

And when he realized that most astronauts had attained the Eagle rank in Boy Scouts, Jake did so, too.

Today, Rohrig's dream of becoming an astronaut is one big step closer to becoming a reality. Rohrig, 25, a mechanical engineer at UTC Aerospace Systems in Rockford, is training this week at the AXE Apollo Space Academy at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Fla., to be an astronaut as part of a competition to go into outer space.

He is one of nine U.S. finalists. Of those nine, one will receive a ticket to be onboard the Space Expedition Corp.'s Space XC shuttle. There were about 750,000 entries in the competition by AXE, which makes body sprays, deodorants and more for men. An additional 100 people from 60 countries are competing for the other two dozen seats on the shuttle.

I wrote about Rohrig in March when he was trying to garner online votes from the public to be a finalist. But he told me last week that there had been a snafu in the voting system, so he is unsure exactly how he was selected.

Public relations representatives for AXE did not respond by deadline to questions, including how Rohrig was selected and when the space flight might take place.

But he has a few theories. He trained in the field, graduating last year with a bachelor's degree in engineering mechanics and astronautics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And he works at the largest aerospace employer in Rockford.

Plus, he is a good communicator. The videos he submitted to AXE for the competition are fun-loving and on-point. In one, he refers to himself as a "Badasstronaut." The videos helped land him a featured spot in a documentary being made for TV about the entire experience, he told me.

A press release from AXE said the nine U.S. finalists will be entered into a random drawing for one ticket into space. Rohrig isn't leaving anything to chance, though.

He's hoping those in charge recognize his storytelling abilities and take note. He'll keep his Facebook and Twitter followers informed throughout the week. "They'll be trying to evaluate which candidates have the right stuff," Rohrig told me.

Among the activities he'll participate in at space camp are floating weightless in a modified Boeing jet.

"It's like a free fall inside, descending fast enough to float," he said.

Rohrig said he's unsure when the spaceflight might take place, though he said it could be next year. But he is sure what he'd be looking forward to if he is selected for the hour-long flight: the view, he said.

Page 2 of 2 - "The actual view itself will be breathtaking and life-changing," he said. "You get to see the curvature of the planet." He'd be flying 64 miles off the Earth's surface.

Rohrig doesn't want to become a full-time astronaut. Instead, he would like to use his first-hand experience on a space flight to give him credibility as a spokesman promoting commercial space travel some day. He speculates that within two decades, travelers of means might hop on a spaceship to fly much more quickly between continents than an airplane can make the trip.

So how much would a ticket into space through the AXE competition cost? About $86,000, Rohrig estimates, based on legal papers he's had to sign.

He'd be responsible for paying between $6,000 and $8,000 in taxes, he said.

Is he scared about flying into outer space? No. "If there was a guy in his garage who duct-taped it together, I would go for it," Rohrig said.